Appalachian Blessings

“Leave It!”

In my Sunday School class we’re reading and discussing a book by Allison Pittman called, “Saturdays with Stella.” When Allison began taking her dog to obedience classes, she realized that most of what she was trying to teach her dog was the same stuff God had been trying to teach her. This past week, the lesson was “leave it.”

Anyone with a dog knows that “leave it” is the command you use to keep your dog from grabbing the baby’s pacifier, or the steak you dropped on the floor, or the disgusting gob of blech on the side of the road. Allison suggests that sometimes God tells us to “leave it,” too. The lesson was timely for me.

This past Saturday I had plans to go to a writer’s event featuring a reading by one of my favorite authors along with sessions about publishing, editing and other writerly subjects. A FREE event.

And then I got a call I knew was coming. A special friend who had been ill a long time died and his funeral was Saturday. At the same time as the writers’ event. There was no question what I would do–the funeral took precedence. But without my recent lesson in “leave it” I would have stewed and schemed and tried to come up with a plan that would somehow let me do both.

But God told me to leave it. And here’s the thing. Just as I don’t tell Thistle to leave something for the heck of it, neither does God. My usual response to things not working out like I planned is to try to come up with a plan B. To make things work the way I want. But if I let God run the show, then He’s already got the full plan–schematics and all–and He’ll never steer me wrong. Never.

If God tells me to let go of something I thought was really awesome, it’s because He has something way better down the road. It would be foolish of me to struggle against that.

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”